Walden Pond, all 64.5 acres of it, lies in front of you, a kettle hole left by retreating glaciers 10,000–12,000 years ago. The water you see is the principal feature of the 335-acre Walden Pond State Reservation, protected and managed by the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation. Here, Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) spent two years living in a cabin on this shore; those years provided the foundation for his famous 1854 work, Walden; or, Life in the Woods.
Because of that association the reservation was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1962, and the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 helped ensure federal support for preserving the pond. The reservation lies south of Massachusetts Route 2 and (mostly) west of Massachusetts Route 126, straddling Concord and Lincoln, and the Fitchburg Line of the MBTA commuter rail passes west of the pond; the nearest station is in Concord center, 1.4 miles northwest. Notice the shore where Thoreau's cabin once stood, and the trails winding through this 335-acre reservation, protected since 1962.